“Click. Click.” The v8 won’t fire up.
I have had this issue before, the alarm overrides something or other. l lock and unlock…grrrrrr no go, so I ring the RACQ. The battery has only 5% charge but that ain’t the issue. Long story short, it was a starter motor wire from the key end……I blurred out a bit by then, but yep she’s good to go, and it didn’t cost me anything, bloody lovely! It was however too late for a 3 hour drive for my first night shift. With no sleep, kangaroos, cows and pigs, I better have the night off. Cheap fix for car, but contracting means I lose a day’s pay, not helpful right now.
Then the ol hippy in me kicks in. “There’s a reason why the angels didn’t want you to go today.” Stay home, watch MKR, it could be the highest score ever tonight, Revenge is on….I have lists to sort, and hmm a red wine is looking mighty fine, and perhaps I averted worse by not being on that highway. After all I’m all about going with the flow, safety and fatigue management.
I checked my emails, and as I recently signed up for the WIMARQ (Women In Mining and Resources Qld) list they emailed me a link to footage of the International Women’s Day Breakfast and Resources Awards for Women. Wow! What an inspiration these chicks are, and they are real peeps, like me. It is great to see the new vision of 20% by 2020 of women in the workforce in non-traditional roles. The interviews and key note speakers inspired me to put pen to paper, fingers to digital, and share my thoughts, and I am only half way through the video.
More women in the resources sector is a fact of life now. Do you embrace them, (not literally!) or think their place is barefoot in the kitchen and pushing a pram? This statement sounds so wrong nowadays, but it was only a few years ago a lovely old fella…yes you!…said that to me, and 4 other women sitting in the crib hut. Lucky he could duck. Yes he was stirring us and it was said tongue in cheek, but was he only verbalising what others think? What you perhaps think?
I am sure, especially if you have been in mining for a long time, you are seeing the changes? Hopefully for the most part you are now accepting us as part of the furniture, and valuable members of your crew and mining life. Who knows, perhaps you are trying to get your daughter/granddaughter/wife/sister/niece/friends out here too? Would you want them to be treated with respect and helped and supported on their journey, especially by the experienced old fellas who can teach them a thing or two?
I speak from an operator’s point of view, but there are plenty of women in the resources sector kicking ass in the engineering, trades, supervising, management and many more roles now. I love hearing a surveyor, or blast crew chick calling up to come on our circuit. Omg how will I be when the fitter who comes to fix my truck is a chick?!
Happy 106th International Women’s Day, and you can thank my v8 for this article…bloody Fords!! Now back to the video…
Cheers,
Mad Mumzie.
